The present invention is related to automatic ice cream cone dispensing machines.
Vending machines have been popularly utilized for the purpose of vending ice cream. However, because of the ease in handling, the ice cream is usually first pre-processed into a bar configuration, sandwich shape, or other appropriate pre-molded configuration whereby the only step required of the vending machine is the delivery of the article to the access door. The popularity of soft ice cream cones (a measured amount of soft ice cream held within a usually edible cone) has brought about a need for providing a suitable vending machine for such articles.
A machine for drawing, filling with an ice cream bulk material and automatically distriubuting a cone is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,478,702. This machine includes a stationary guide on which a slide is movably connected. The slide extends laterally between a magazine holding a plurality of upwardly open ice cream cones and a pick up station whereat filled cones are received by a purchaser. A gripping member is provided on the slide which is movable thereon to engage the bottom cone of the stack and to pull it downwardly away from the stack. The freed cone is then moved in a prescribed path to an ice cream filling station where a measured amount of ice cream is deposited into the cone. Finally, the filled cone is moved further along the path to the pick up station. Receiving, filling, and pick up stations are arranged in order so that the machine presents a substantially wide front. In addition, this apparatus is powered by air pressure directed through a plurality of cylinders and valves. Accuracy in positioning of corresponding members through utilization of air pressure is extremely difficult to obtain. Therefore, such a machine would require frequent maintenance checks.
Another U.S. Pat. No. 2,899,988 to D. L. Stanley discloses an ice cream dispenser that utilizes mechanical mechanisms for dispensing hard ice cream cones. This machine is necessarily very complex to provide a method by which the hard ice cream is scooped from a bulk container and deposited into a single cone or dish.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,587,478 also discloses a dispensing machine that is utilized to distribute single ice cream cones to an access point. The ice cream is held within individual cylindrical containers and is forced into the cones, leaving the empty cylindrical containers to be further processed.
It is one object of the present invention to provide a new and novel automatic ice cream dispensing machine that is superior to previous machines of this type.
Another object is to provide such a machine that is compact in configuration with a cone magazine and filling station straddling a cone pick up station. The cones will move from the magazine, past the pick up station to the filling station and, subsequently, back to the pick up station after receiving a measured amount of ice cream.
A still further object is to provide an escapement mechanism for nested cones that is effective in releasing single cones to a receiving mechanism without requiring that each cone be grasped and forceably pulled from the stack to minimize breakage of fragile cones.
A still further object is to provide such a machine that is relatively simple in construction and is therefore easy to maintain.
These and still further objects and advantages will become apparent upon reading the following description, which taken with the accompanying drawings, disclose a preferred form of the present invention. It should be noted however that the description and drawings represent only a preferred form of the invention and that other forms may be readily devised by those skilled in the art. For this reason, only the claims provided at the end of this desclosure are to be taken as definitions of my invention.